Stillness opens our hearts to a sense of wonder, allowing us to discover the presence of God in the unexpected and ordinary.
What do you notice in stillness?
Stillness
Open-endedly
To wait open-endedly is
an enormously radical attitude toward life.
…actively present to the moment,
expecting that new things will happen to us,
new things that are far beyond
our own imagination or prediction.
That, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life
in a world preoccupied with control.
~ Henri J.M. Nouwen
How do you stay open?
Fermentation
“I always think that that’s the secret of change — that there are huge gestations and fermentations going on in us that we are not even aware of. And then, sometimes, when we come to a threshold, crossing over, which we need to become different, that we’ll be able to be different, because secret work has been done in us, of which we’ve had no inkling.” John O’Donahue in an interview with Krista Tippett
As we stand at the threshold of the Advent season, how will you pay attention to the secret work God is doing within you?
Golden threads
There are things
We get through
That we grieve
Only later—
When some new loss
Pulls them to the surface
Of the deep well
In which they’ve
Been submerged.
And so today
Our grief for
The world as we’ve
Known it,
For plans laid down,
For possibilities
Now gone forever,
Is laced with
Golden threads
Of loss we had forgotten,
As if distant waves
Are lapping
On an unseen shore
In the dark of night. Judy Brown
What golden threads of loss are rising to the surface for you?
Beneath the storm
Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.” Jan Richardson, The Cure For Sorrow
What do you discover beneath the chaos?
Setting sail
“It takes courage to set sail in a new direction of life. Our minds to venture in catching winds of time and change. And the sun rising with a fresh perspective.” Linda J. Wolff
What new direction asks for your courage?
With the Eyes of the Heart 